i895- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 227 



Those interested in liverworts will find a valuable addition to the 

 literature of the group in an account of the Hepaticae collected by- 

 Mr. W. R. Elliott in the British West Indies in 1891 and 1892. A 

 sad interest attaches to this paper from its being the last piece of 

 work on which the veteran botanist and collector, Richard Spruce, 

 was engaged. As stated in the short introduction, the work was 

 interrupted by the death of the worker, and the task of arranging, 

 amplifying, and generally editing the mass of notes fell to Mr. Gepp 

 of the' British Museum. There is ample internal evidence that not a 

 little of the credit is due to the editor, by whom also, if we remember 

 rightly, the paper was communicated to the Society. A number of 

 new species are described, many of which are illustrated in the 

 eleven clearly-drawn plates. 



The remainder of this issue of the Journal (vol. xxx., pp. 331-435) 

 is devoted to a contribution to the Flora of Eastern Tropical Africa, 

 in which Mr. A. B. Rendle deals with some of the plants recently 

 brought home by Dr. J. W. Gregory, and also a collection made by 

 the Rev. W. E. Taylor of the Church Missionary Society. Dr. 

 Gregory, as our readers are already aware, explored the district 

 between the coast in the latitude of Mombasa and Mount Kenya, 

 including the Laikipia plateau, the country south of Kenya, the valley 

 in which lie Lakes Naivasha and Baringo, and the Taita and East 

 Ongalea Mountains. From the terminal moraine of sheet glaciation 

 on Mount Kenya he has brought a new orchid belonging to the genus 

 Disci, which finds its greatest development at the Cape, but frequents 

 also the mountains of Tropical Africa as far north as Abyssinia, 

 From the same locality comes a Gladiolus hitherto known only from 

 the other great eastern equatorial mountain, Kilima-njaro. Associated 

 with these, or rather on somewhat lower slopes, it is interesting to find 

 one of our native rushes (Juncus effusus), and a variety of a British 

 Woodrush (Luzula spicata). 



Another homely plant, the water plantain (Alisma Plautago) was 

 gathered at a height of 6,720 feet on the Laikipia plateau, and Dr. 

 Gregory need not have gone to Losuguta, in the Baringo Valley, to 

 find Typha angustifolia. With these temperate types are several new 

 species of a purely tropical character, including orchids, liliaceous 

 plants, and other petaloid monocotyledons, as well as two little 

 aquatic plants, both novelties, and belonging to the tropical genus 

 LagarosipJiou. Unfortunately, water-plants are generally neglected by 

 travellers, though there is no doubt that an examination of the lakes 

 and ponds would bring to light many treasures of value, either as 

 additions to science or from the point of view of geographical distribu- 

 tion. To Mr. Taylor we are indebted for some novelties from Mount 

 Kilima-njaro, which he explored up to 10,000 feet. On the higher 

 slopes he found several new orchids, including another Disa, and a tiny 

 Disperis only three inches high, its thread-like stem ending in a single 

 flower. Another gem from a similar elevation is a little iridaceous 



